Minnesota Off The Critical List

Holtz Is The Right Medicine For Ailing Program

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota linebacker Peter Najarian thinks second-year head coach Lou Holtz is just what the doctor ordered to bring the Gophers back to robust health. Who should know better?

Najarian, the son of an eminent Minneapolis surgeon, plans to be a doctor. As a member of one of the worst teams in Minnesota history, he swallowed plenty of bitter pills before Holtz came last year to change the prescription.

``When you get beat 84-13 the way we lost to Nebraska (in 1983), it becomes a joke,`` Najarian says. ``You walk through the campus and you get hassled. You go to parties and you get hassled again. You don`t even have a comeback because what they said to you was true.``

If the Gophers had more players like Najarian, they might not have needed the ministrations of a Lou Holtz. The 6-foot-2-inch, 222-pound Najarian has started and led the team in tackles for the past three years.

``You can`t minimize what he does for us,`` Holtz says. ``He`s so intelligent.``

That, like his football ability, is inherited from his father, Dr. John Najarian, chief of surgical medicine at University of Minnesota hospitals.

``He`s had the highest success rate in the world in liver transplants,``

Peter says proudly.

He`s also proud of his father`s football career at California.

``He was an All-America and played in the Rose Bowl,`` Peter says.

The elder Najarian was on the team that lost to Northwestern in the 1949 Rose Bowl. Minnesota has lost all three games his son has played against the Wildcats, and the son says, ``He told me he knows what it felt like.``

Najarian says his father has not pushed him to become a doctor.

``Everyone respects his father and wants to do what he did,`` Najarian says. ``I wanted to play football because he`d done that.``

Najarian plans to specialize in sports medicine. He had knee surgery himself in 1983.

``That`s what got me interested,`` he says. ``There are a lot of great orthopedic surgeons, but a lot can still be done in the field. There`s got to be something you can put in a knee to replace a ligament.``

As a premed student, of course, Najarian has not really started his medical studies.

``I`ve never even seen a cadaver, but I have watched some of my father`s operations,`` he says.

Almost as satisfying for him has been watching Holtz operate since arriving a year ago to revive the moribund program.

``I think the biggest thing he has done,`` Najarian says, ``is he`s finally gotten Minnesota proud of its football team. People think the Gophers can win. That`s been proved by the season ticket sales (47,000) and all those `Gold Crush` T-shirts people are buying.``

The Gophers also have a new $5.5 million indoor practice facility that is probably unmatched in the country. Dubbed ``the Taj MaHoltz`` by Northwestern athletic director Doug Single, it is a sure-fire recruiting device.

It appears it already has started paying dividends. Holtz lists as many as a dozen freshmen as possibilities for his two-deep lineup. He says it without any apparent concern for the consequences.

``There are some freshmen who are really making a strong run,`` he says,

``and it`s not because of need.``

The one who has made the biggest impression is Trint Trip, a 6-6, 290-pound noseguard from Mondovi, Wis. ``There`s something unusual about him,``

``I took a recruiting trip to Notre Dame and (ex-Pittsburgh tackle) Bill Fralic was there at the same time,`` Najarian says. ``Trint reminds me of Fralic, except he`s bigger and stronger.``

Another eye-catching freshman has been quarterback Roselle Richardson from Warren, Ohio.

``He`s awesome,`` Najarian says. ``He looks like a linebacker. He can throw the ball and run a 4.6 (seconds in the 40-yard dash). Most freshmen look like freshmen. These freshmen look like juniors and seniors.``

The 6-2, 210-pound Richardson is already running on the second string behind Foggie. He`s not likely to replace the sophomore starter, who is one of the most exciting players in the conference, but at least he gives Holtz some protection at the position.

Foggie, a devastating runner in the option I offense, is ``the finest quarterback I`ve ever been around at this stage in his development,`` Holtz says. ``He`s much improved as a passer. I`ve read where a lot of quarterbacks have taken out insurance on themselves. I`d like to take one out on Rickey where if Rickey gets hurt I get $1 million to help me get through the season.``

Holtz expects to get through the season in better shape than a year ago, when he wrought a minor miracle by winning four games, including upsets of Wisconsin and Iowa.

He`s not claiming the Gophers are ready to contend for the championship, but says: ``There`s nothing out there that`s a real glaring weakness. There`s not a position except maybe the secondary that couldn`t turn out to be a strength.

``We have some options this year. If this road is closed we`re not completely lost. We`re not going to have to move a running back to safety on Monday and start him on Friday. I think we could be much, much improved, even more than people think.``

``We`ve got a shot at the top,`` Najarian insists. ``We definitely have seen the bottom.``